Some trends are developing this spring
Spring training has come to the point where everybody just wants to get the season started. This isn’t 1975. Players don’t need 40 days to get in shape for the season. They now arrive at camp after a full offseason of workouts with most players employing professional trainers.
Truth be told, position players could be ready in a few weeks. But pitchers need time to build up innings while facing hitters. Spring training also is a profitable enterprise, let’s not forget that.
Beyond checking days off the calendar as Opening Day approaches, there are some trends developing in Florida and Arizona worth noting:
● The Orioles are a terror: Baltimore won 16 of its first 21 games and led the Grapefruit League in runs. That’s not some fluke.
Adding Corbin Burnes to the young core of stars stamped the Orioles as the team to beat in the American League East, and they’re comfortable with the expectations.
Jackson Holliday was given No. 87 for spring training. That could change if the 20-year-old comes out of camp as the starting second baseman. Even if he doesn’t, Holliday will be in the majors soon.
Outfielder Colton Cowser, who turns 24 on Wednesday, has been one of the most impressive hitters in Florida, statistically and according to scouts.
As new owners prepare to take over from the Angelos family, the Orioles are positioned for long-term success.
● Paul Skenes is the real deal: The first pick of the 2023 draft by the Pirates appeared in only one Grapefruit League game and was told he wouldn’t make the team. But the 21-year-old from LSU seems sure to make his debut within a few months, if not sooner.
Consider this six-pitch at-bat against Holliday in a Spring Breakout prospects game. Skenes started out with fastballs of 101 and 102 miles per hour that Holliday took for balls. A changeup was fouled off.
Skenes came back with 101 that was just off the plate. Then came a breaking ball that Holliday missed and a changeup off the outside corner he swung through.
“Not fair,” wrote Hall of Famer Jim Palmer on X. He compared the 6-foot-6inch, 235-pound Skenes to Nolan Ryan.
● Competitive Padres: The death of free-spending owner Peter Seidler, the trade of Juan Soto to the Yankees, and the loss of Cy Young Award winner
Blake Snell to free agency seemed to signal a step back for the Padres.
But never count out president of baseball operations A.J. Preller. He swung a trade for Dylan Cease and seems set to start the season with 20year-old outfielder Jackson Merrill.
Merrill had a .995 OPS through 13 Cactus League games and accompanied the Padres to South Korea this past week to open the season.
“He’s earned what’s coming after the plane,” manager Mike Shildt said.
Merrill, who turns 21 in April, was the team’s first-round pick in 2021 out of a high school in Maryland. He finished last season in Double A. Merrill was a shortstop in the minors, but the Padres are trying him in center field.
A rotation fronted by Cease, Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, and former Boston College pitcher Michael King (obtained from the Yankees as part of the Soto deal) will be competitive.
They could use a run producer like J.D. Martinez to DH.
● Yankees woes: Gerrit Cole is expected to miss 1-2 months with an elbow injury. Marcus Stroman was asked to start Opening Day and turned it down. Aaron Boone settled on Nestor Cortes, who had a 4.97 ERA in 12 starts last season.
Meanwhile, Aaron Judge is dealing with an abdominal strain and slimmeddown Giancarlo Stanton hasn’t found his swing.